Feb. 2 (Bloomberg) -- DuPont Co., Dow Chemical Co., and
Denki Kagaku Kogyo KK lost bids to overturn antitrust fines by
the European Union for claims they colluded to fix prices in the
rubber chemical industry.

The European Commission was right in the findings and fines
it imposed for the cartel, the EU’s General Court said in three
separate rulings for the companies.

The EU’s antitrust regulator has “wide discretion as
regards the methods of calculating fines” and didn’t err in the
amounts or the fines themselves, the Luxembourg-based tribunal
said today.

Five companies were fined a total of 247.6 million euros
($325 million) in 2007 by the commission, the European Union’s
antitrust regulator, for colluding on prices for chloroprene
rubber, used to make latex rubber, from at least 1993 to 2002,
the commission said. Bayer AG, Germany’s largest drugmaker and
another repeat offender, escaped a 201 million euro fine, as it
had told the regulator about the cartel. An appeal by Eni SpA,
which received the heaviest fine, is pending.

“DuPont is disappointed with the decision” and is
considering whether to appeal, Eduardo Menchaca, a spokesman for
the company, said today.

‘Convinced of the Correctness’

Dow will appeal the ruling “as we continue to remain
convinced of the correctness of our position,” the company said
in an e-mailed statement.

Naoshi Fukawa, a spokesman for Denki Kagaku in Tokyo, said
the company can’t comment until it has read the ruling.

DuPont received a 15 million-euro fine and Dow was fined
4.4 million euros individually. The commission fined their
former joint venture 44.3 million euros, to be shared by the two
companies. Dow Chemical transferred its stake in the joint
venture to Wilmington, Delaware-based DuPont in 2005 and it was
renamed DuPont Performance Elastomers LLC.

Eni, Italy’s largest oil company, got a 60 percent fine
increase to 132.2 million euros for being a repeat offender. Its
appeal is being reviewed separately.

Tosoh Corp., a Japan petrochemical maker, did not fight the
decision after receiving a 50 percent cut in its fine for
cooperating with the investigation.